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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24536236">Locked inside a bomb</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mary2442/pseuds/Mary2442'>Mary2442</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>MacGyver (TV 2016)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 10:27:33</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>5,408</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24536236</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mary2442/pseuds/Mary2442</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Hello everyone !</p>
<p>This is a story about Mac and Riley. When Mac's house become a bomb and they are trapped inside.</p>
<p>It's a longer story than the others I've written before, I hope you will like it ! </p>
<p>(P.S. English is not my first language so please be indulgent.)</p>
<p>Enjoy your reading ! :)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Jack Dalton &amp; Angus MacGyver (MacGyver TV 2016), Riley Davis &amp; Angus MacGyver (MacGyver TV 2016)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>35</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Locked inside a bomb</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Riley was comfortably installed in the couch, hunting for a new place to live. She planned to spend a quiet evening at Mac's place, watching TV and playing video games with some friends via internet.<br/>
Macgyver was out with Bozer and Jack for an evening between boy, so she had the house all for herself.</p>
<p>She just had found an apartment on the website and had called the men in charge. It was too expensive for her, like every other she called for.<br/>
In a way she thought that maybe she didn't really want to leave Mac's place. He had told her, she could stay as long as she wanted and she didn't want to leave. Especially now, while Mac and Desi had broken up and that she had left. </p>
<p>After Desi left, two weeks ago, Jack had returned at Phoenix and Riley had time to think about her feeling for Mac. Since their undercover mission inside Codex, three weeks ago, Riley had the impression that Mac was closer to her. He always waits for her to finish her job at Phoenix to come home with her, he was always careful about how she felt and kept an eye on her when they were into a mission and she appreciated that.<br/>
Furthermore, she had been there for him after the death of his father. She had understood that Desi wasn't really good to explain feelings and so not a real good listener. She hadn't had the strength to watch him wrestle alone. Thus, she had found him, a night where Desi wasn't at home, on the couch, in the shadow. They had spoken all the night, about everything he needed to talk about. At some point, he had cried and she had hugged him until she was sure he was ok.<br/>
It had been almost a month and they had never talked about it again, but she could feel he was grateful to her.</p>
<p>She smiled, remembering this night resting her computer on the coffee table. The hunting could wait. She headed to the fridge and took the chocolate ice cream pot, before coming back in the living room. Once all the equipment was ready, headphone on her ears, she sat back on the couch and waiting for her friends to join her, in the game, eating her ice cream. </p>
<p>Quickly, the game started.<br/>
Around one a.m., she said good bye to her friends and look at the clock. Mac would be there within an hour. She decided to wait for him and started a new game.<br/>
She was beating a zombie enemy when she suddenly saw a reflection on the screen. She turned to face him and for almost a minute she remained paralyzed.</p>
<p>A man was standing behind her. He was tall, with big shoulders, brown short hair and a long violet scar on his jaw. On his full body Riley could count fourteen weapons: five guns, six knives and three grenades. In her opinion he was horrific, she loved horror movies, but she had never hoped to become a part of it. Which was pretty funny if we looked at her life. </p>
<p>Not wanting to end like the characters in the horror movies, that is to say badly, she got up quickly, taking her cell phone in the movement and ran toward Mac's bedroom where she knew she could find something to defend herself.<br/>
The man followed her angrily. She voluntarily dropped furniture on her way to slow down the psychopath.<br/>
Once in Mac's room, she locked the door behind her moved all the big furniture against the door. Then, stomach in her throat and hearing that the man was worked hard on the thin piece of wood which separated them, she looked around her for a tool which could allow her to knock him out, electrocute him, strangle him or at least keep him away ! She had tried to call Mac, then Jack and Bozer but their phone were down.<br/>
“Improvise” she heard Mac in her head.<br/>
She found all kinds of things, she caught a hair clipper turned into a taser, a belt and a sheet.<br/>
“Great, now what's the plan”, she could hear Jack asking her in her head.<br/>
Mac's place was a treasure. At the beginning, she thought it was a good thing in her position, but she rapidly understood that wasn't completely true when she saw an axe pierce the door.<br/>
“Why Mac has an axe in his house ?!” she thought, feeling her legs shake.<br/>
“Okay, we definitely need to install armored doors”, she said to herself. If she survives, she should talk about that with Mac. It was a pretty big if.<br/>
She put herself into an attack position: ex clipper new taser in front of her, the belt in her other hand and the sheet put on that same arm. She had a plan: electrocuted him,  wrapped him in the sheet and secure the package with the belt. All of that, before he could shoot her, if it's possible.</p>
<p>When the psychopath entered into the room with his axe, Riley was mad at Mac. An axe !  Seriously !<br/>
He was looking at her in a way you could have a heart attack in the second.<br/>
It was now or never, she rushed towards him and stuck the clipper into his neck. Unfortunately, before she could reach it perfectly, he grabbed her by the hair and pulled her back. Before her brain had the time to process what was going on, she saw his fist dressed in a brass knuckles coming in her face, the pain flocked violently. She thought of Jack, Mac, Bozer, Matty, her mother, all the good time she had spent with them, and in the next millisecond there was nothing more.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>….....................…...................................</p>
<p> </p>
<p>When she opened her eyes, her head made her suffer. At first, she couldn't really understand where she was, she was in the dark and only the moon rays lit up the room. Once her eyes were used to the shadows, she saw. She was in the attic, how was she arrive here ? and suddenly it hit her: The video games, the ice cream, the reflect, the man out of a horror movie, Mac's bedroom, the axe, the fight and finally the black out.<br/>
Her heart was ponding hard in her chest. How many time was she gone ? Why the man wanted to take her if it's just to put her on the attic ?<br/>
Everything was illogical. She sat slowly increasing her headache. What was going on ?!<br/>
She looked around her. Nothing has changed, all the stuffs were at their regular place.<br/>
But she was in the middle of the room, so maybe something behind her was different. Perhaps, the man was there looking at her ! She turned around quickly in the panic. Her body disapproved and during a minute she felt seek. When the feeling got away, she opened her eyes and stopped breathing.</p>
<p>It was there, in front of her, maybe at fifteen centimeter of her face: a bomb. She had seen that before, on mission. On mission she was never afraid, because on mission Mac was there. Now she was alone. Mac ! Maybe Mac was home ? But how could she knows without telling the big horror man that she was awake ? She approached the bomb, she could see nothing, it was a black box with a timer: 01:17:32. It was bad.<br/>
Surrounding the box, she could see the wires, they were crossing the room. It stopped at the door and into the light switch and passed under the door leading to the staircase leading to the ground floor. It was really bad.<br/>
She couldn't take the risk to try to open the door or open the light. She was locked with a bomb which could blow up at any moment, if she touched the wrong wires or put a toe in the wrong parquet batten, she would be dead. She was stuck.<br/>
So, decided she had nothing more to lose, she began to yell his name : “MAC ?”. No result. Maybe the man took him or perhaps he was in another room, in the same situation.<br/>
She sat on the floor thinking : what would Mac do ? “He would disarm it, but you're not Mac”, she said to herself. She could do nothing and it was scaring her.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>….....................…...................................</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Mac got out of the car saying good night to Bozer and Jack. He looked at the car faded-away and headed to his house. He had passed a great evening. It was late and Riley should be sleeping, he carefully sank into the dark house and hung on his vest on the coat hanger. He heard the door close softly behind him, but he could distinguish this little “click” that he knows so well. A bomb. His brain started to work automatically. He looked around him, touching nothing except what was necessary and finally came to the conclusion : his house was becoming a gigantic bomb and he was trapped inside. </p>
<p>Riley was the first things he thought about. </p>
<p>“Riley ?” he called her.</p>
<p>No respond.</p>
<p>He picked up a flashlight and started to look for explosives, he noticed several of it in all the rooms of the house. It was worse than what he thought. Following all the wires, he finally found the bomb under his house. It was the biggest bomb he had seen in his whole life.<br/>
If this bomb would go off, everything within twelve miles will be destroyed.<br/>
He went down to approached the bomb, it was a complex one: lot of reagents, lot of wires and a complex organization, which was leaving no place for the haste and amateurism.<br/>
Fortunately, he was an expert and his expert eyes had immediately seen two freaky things : there was no timer and there was a bunch of wires which left in a different direction compare to the others.<br/>
It wasn't normal things. </p>
<p>He followed the wires. It led him to cross the whole house straight up to the stairs allowing to go up to the attic. </p>
<p>He had found Riley nowhere, but he had noticed that his bedroom's door was completely destroyed. It was preoccupying.<br/>
In the living room, he had found her computer and had figure it out that she wanted to move in a new place. It had hurt him, he thought Riley was happy to live with him, everything between them was fine, except maybe now that his house was a giant bomb. If she used that as an argument maybe he should agree to hear it. But aside from that there is no clue to find her.</p>
<p>He decided to call Jack to inform him of the situation. The phone rang four times before Jack answered:<br/>
“Yes buddy ?” Jack asks sleepily. </p>
<p>“Someone came at my home and put explosives everywhere and the biggest bomb I've ever seen under my house.”</p>
<p>“Dude, we need to buy you a security device, with ...” Mac could tell that Jack was moving “...an alarm and maybe some deadly protection, you see what I mean ?”</p>
<p>“Yeah, but for now, I need you to find Riley” Mac knew Jack wouldn't like it.When it came to Riley, Jack was always, well, a deadly danger.</p>
<p>“I'm sorry, you just said what ?! Don't tell me she's not with you, don't tell me she is with this asshole who put this bomb in your house, Maaaaaacc !” Jack was pissed, Mac could hear him slamming harshly his car's door.</p>
<p>“I'm sorry Jack, but I think she is, and to be honest, I don't know if I would prefer to have her here, with me, or knowing her with him.”</p>
<p>Mac would always prefer to have Riley with him because he knows that together they could solve any problem and plus, when she's with him he doesn't need to be worried about her. He always keeps her safe and when he can't Jack do. </p>
<p>“I'm going to kill someone this night ! and I can tell, it will be ugly”, Jack warned passing all red traffic lights. Mac could hear the horns in the background.</p>
<p>“Let me know if you have news, I'm going to try to find a way to disarm all of that.”</p>
<p>“Yeah, good luck Mac and be careful, keep your ass alive, okay ?”, it was what was cool about Jack, he was always able to distance himself from danger being at the same time a significant support for Mac.</p>
<p>“Yeah.” Mac answered before hang up. </p>
<p>He was upset, with all the effort he did to keep Riley safe, she was in danger. He should have known that she would be in danger in his home. This is where all the things went wrong. But when she came to him two months ago, after Aubrey had broken up with her, he couldn't have resisted. He wanted her here, with him and he loved spending random time, normal life with her, outside of the work. He had been selfish on this one, but she was the woman he fell in love with and even him can't disarmed that.</p>
<p>Jack was looking for her, he could refocus on the bomb.</p>
<p>The wires climbed the stairs along the ramp. He examined the stairs to be sure he wasn't going to fire a detonator and carefully climbed the steps one by one. Each step creaked in a horrible noise leading him deeper into the dark as things progressed.</p>
<p>Once on the last step, he examined the switch, before turn it up to turn on the light. He had a move backward when he saw the attic door. It was covered with a highly explosive powder. Two wires had been stopped here and the two other had been sunk under the door. He contemplated the door in front of him like if it was a work of art. Who could be so mad at him ? He had a lot of enemies, but since Murdoc everything has been calm and his house safe.<br/>
He rapidly understood, that if he opened the door, another bomb would explode on the other side. But he had the impression, that the bigger one, under his house, wasn't connecting with the door, it was just relaying.</p>
<p>He came back down to check his theory. It was ok. He huffed slowly, sweat dripping down his forehead. But he didn't know what was behind the attic door. He climbed the stairs for the second time, and with his Swiss knife, stripping the wires which passed under the door.<br/>
It was blue: not exactly a good or a bad color by his experience. Bad news was : if he tried to disarm the bomb under his house this one gonna go off, but the good news was : if he could find a way to enter into the room he could disarm this bomb and the other will not explode. </p>
<p>Theoretically. </p>
<p>His heart was beating heavily in if chest. He was used to it.<br/>
There were only two wires which through the door, so, the bomb couldn't be bigger than a shoe box, which meant that if it went off there was ninety-nine percent chance that only the attic are destroyed. It was a risk he could take : if he couldn't disarmed this little one, he would go disarmed the bigger one and he should say goodbye to his attic and by the same way to all the things he had from his father. He could live without it.</p>
<p>One question stayed outstanding : where was Riley ? He thought a moment, then got up, but in the maneuver he dropped his knife. It was too risky to let it fall on the ground so he caught up in flight cutting his hand in the action.<br/>
“Shit”, he said out loud. The next second he thought he heard something. He listened more carefully.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>….....................…...................................</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Riley has been back at her place in the middle of the room since nearly six minutes, thinking about how she could get out of there, watching at the timer, when she heard someone coming in the stairs. </p>
<p>Each time a step was squeaked she was shivering. She was terrified, the tears came to her eyes. She tried to find somewhere to hide herself, but she couldn't touch anything without being sure the bomb wasn't going to go off. At the moment she decided to scream to intimidate her opponent, she heard the stranger walk away. It was weird.<br/>
Even more weird when she heard him coming back. Maybe he forgot his weapon in the living room and now he was coming back to kill her. The tears she had swallowed reappear and this time rolled down on her cheek while she was listening. For a while there was no noise, nothing. Until someone sworn : “Shit”.</p>
<p>She frowned, was it Mac ?<br/>
Full of hope, she stands up drying her tears.<br/>
“Mac ?”, she whispered.<br/>
Nothing. She tried stronger :</p>
<p>“Mac ?”</p>
<p>On the other side Mac heard her:</p>
<p>“Riley ?”, he asks released from a height.</p>
<p>“Yes”, she was crying.</p>
<p>“Are you okay ? What happened ?” he asks her, sending a text to Jack to inform him she was with him.</p>
<p>“Yeah, just a headache.” Mac could hear her voice trembled “I was playing video games when a man came behind me, he was tall, big, brown hair and a scar was sitting on his jaw, I tried to escape, I found a clipper hair/taser in your room” Mac smiled at that, “but he was faster than me and he had an axe, why have you an axe at your home ?!”, </p>
<p>He leaned his head against the wall which separate him from Riley. She had have been scared, for sure. He was mad at himself, in a corner of his head, he promised himself to sort it out.</p>
<p>“It's not mine, Bozer bought it for his movies when he lived here”.</p>
<p>“Yeah, well, the psychopath had found it ! He knocked me out and I wake up here. There is a bomb Mac !” she was losing her steady.</p>
<p>“I know, slow down.” He was texting Jack about all the information Riley had given to him on the man omitting the axe part. “I found a big one under the house, can you tell me if this one has a timer and if it's working ?”</p>
<p>“Yeah, there is one, Mac we have less than one hour to stop it. Tell me you can !” she was stressed.</p>
<p>He automatically started the timer on his watch.</p>
<p>“I don't know...”, he admits.</p>
<p>A minute ago he had a plan, but it included the attic blowing up, and it was no longer an option. He could live without the attic and family memories, but not without Riley Davis.</p>
<p>“You don't know ?”, she asks weakly.</p>
<p>“ Yeah, this is not as easy as usual”, he explains. “The door here is full of explosive powder. I can't remove it, if I try the big one gonna explode and destroy everything within twelve miles.”</p>
<p>“Why would you not disarm the big bomb and after you come back here, remove the explosives and disarm that one ?”</p>
<p>“Because if I touch the big one this one gonna go off and the attic will blow up.” he wanted to hit violently the door but restrained himself.</p>
<p>He had the choice between saving Riley or saving approximately ten thousand innocent people. He had lost Charlie in almost the same way and now it was Riley's turn.</p>
<p>“Okay, Riley I need you to tell me what you see around you. You will be my eyes and hands” He said calmly.</p>
<p>She scanned the room:</p>
<p>“There is a bomb, I can't see the inside because it's opaque. There are several wires connected to it, two of them are blue and go in your direction and three others are red and stopped at the door and into the light switch. I can also see a few boxes under the roof window.” she tried her best to describe exactly the room, Mac needed it.</p>
<p>“Perfect, can you tell me what's in the boxes ?”, maybe something in it could help.</p>
<p>“I don't know Mac, do you think I can walk up to it without trigger a bomb ?”, she asks more confident than earlier.</p>
<p>Mac knew she could do that, she was stronger than she seems.</p>
<p>“The red wires, do they sink into the ground ?”</p>
<p>“No”</p>
<p>“Can you see a wire sink into the ground ? It can come from the ceiling or the window”.</p>
<p>“No”</p>
<p>“So, you can progress in the room safely”, his voice was clear and steady. </p>
<p>She reached the boxes and open it slowly. Her heart was racing in her chest, she could find a new bomb in any of these cardboards.</p>
<p>“Riles, please talk to me”, he was a little stressed.</p>
<p>“I don't know how you could do that in the past, progressed knowing that you could put a foot on a bomb at any moment”, she had found several books in the first two boxes. “I found books, Mac.”</p>
<p>“It was my job Riles, I was trained for that”, he was aware that it was hard for her. But he could tell that she handled her emotion pretty well. “Books are helpless, keep looking.”</p>
<p>“Well, I couldn't do this everyday”, she opened a new box: “There is a cardboard with photo albums”. The sweat flowed on her forehead.</p>
<p>“You do a great job Riles. Look more deeply on this one.”</p>
<p>“Can I know what I'm looking for ?”</p>
<p>“An instant camera, it could be more easier for me to help you disarm the bomb.” he explains. </p>
<p>Yes, his new plan was to lead Riley and she was the one who would disarm the bomb.</p>
<p>“You want me to disarm it ?” she shivered, a bad feeling overwhelming her.</p>
<p>At this moment she distinguished, in the rays moon, the instant camera he needed.</p>
<p>“We don't have enough time for me to find a way to get in.”</p>
<p>“Mac”, her voice was almost imperceptible.</p>
<p>“Riles, I know you can do this, stay focus.” He wanted to be trapped inside with her, he would have given everything to exchange his place with her.</p>
<p>Riley stands up and breathed, hardly. </p>
<p>“I found the camera”, she announced doubtful.</p>
<p>“Perfect, now take a picture of the bomb and slide it under the door.”</p>
<p>She approached the bomb.</p>
<p>“Mac, I need some light, I don't think the rays moon is enough to allow me to take a picture.”</p>
<p>“Oh yes, sorry, next to the door there is a box, inside it you should find a flashlight.”</p>
<p>“I got it”</p>
<p>She takes the photo and waited while it was developing. Then, she slides it under the door.<br/>
Mac took it and analysis it. </p>
<p>“Okay, I'm gonna guide you”</p>
<p>“Okay”, she huffed.</p>
<p>“Gently lift the opaque cover.”</p>
<p>She put her hands on the side and in slow motion without breathing she remove the cover. Underneath, there was a plaque, like a small dashboard, placed on top of explosives.. And all of it could kill her. It will kill her, within less than twenty two minutes now.</p>
<p>“I did it Mac”, she said, releasing her breath.</p>
<p>“Okay, take a new picture”</p>
<p>She did it and slide it for Mac.</p>
<p>“It's easy, you can do it with no problem. First, you have to cut the green wire just beside the timer.”</p>
<p>She was shaking. She never had seen Mac shiver in front of a bomb. With a unsure hand, she cut the green wire as he said.</p>
<p>“Did it”, she huffed slowly drying the sweat with her forearm.</p>
<p>“Perfect, now-”</p>
<p>“Mac, the timer said eighteen minutes ! I will not succeed in time ! ” she felt herself lose control.</p>
<p>From her point of view, she was progressing too slowly and she could see the time scroll under her eyes.</p>
<p>“Don't panic Riles, remember your emotions are more dangerous than the bomb!” He tried not to show her, how he was afraid loosing her.</p>
<p>“I see blur Mac !”</p>
<p>“It's okay Riles, it's the adrenaline, take your time !”</p>
<p>Riley was disarming a bomb and he was trapped behind the door. It was frustrating. If something happened to Riley he will never forgive himself.<br/>
His phone rang.</p>
<p>“Riley breath we have time, okay. Jack is calling”.</p>
<p>He heard her take a deep breath, he wanted to end this as fast as possible to not keep her in danger any longer, but she was not trained for that and he had to accept she needed time.</p>
<p>“Yes, Jack ?” he asked, picking up the phone.</p>
<p>“We caught him Mac”</p>
<p>“Who is he ?” he had a minute while Riley refocused herself.</p>
<p>“Morogoff, a man you met in Afghanistan.  Apparently on your last mission over there, you should take a decision but you were busy at this moment, so your superior had asked Morogoff to take the lead. There were five hundred civil, in a military area, things went wrong and he must have to choose between save his co-worker and best friend or save the five hundred civil. He made a choice and five hundred people are dead. This day, you had saved one thousand two hundred people in a building about to implode. When you came home, you were decorated with honor and Morogoff was fired for serious misconduct.”</p>
<p>Mac remembered that.</p>
<p>“And now..”</p>
<p>“And now, he asks you to make a choice. It's Riley or the ten thousand people around here ! How is it going for you ?”</p>
<p>“I couldn't enter the room so Riley is doing it”.</p>
<p>“She disarms the bomb ?”</p>
<p>“Yeah, well, for now, she is a little anxious. We need to progress I call you back when we safe.”</p>
<p>“Okay Mac, take care of her.”</p>
<p>“You know I do, Jack”</p>
<p> “I'm not kidding, Mac, if she has a crooked hair, I swear to God that I kick your ass and make eating a grenade to this asshole!”</p>
<p>“I promise”, he hangs up.</p>
<p>She had to succeed, he had to save her</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“ Riley you okay ?” he asked, worried.</p>
<p>“Yeah, I feel nauseous, but I see clearly”</p>
<p>“I believe in you Riles, I know you can do it. I'm with you, just breath slowly”</p>
<p>She took her time to focus herself, her heartbeat slow down and when she was steady she asked:</p>
<p>“What's the next move ?”</p>
<p>He was so proud of her.</p>
<p>“Cut the two yellow wires on the right.” he was focusing on her breath, if she continued to breathe like that, they should be saved.</p>
<p>“Did it”, she was focused and her voice was clear.</p>
<p>“Now cut the red wire to the left of the timer, the one on the right.”</p>
<p>“Did it”, she whispered. </p>
<p>“You do an amazing job Riles”</p>
<p>“Mac, it said seven minutes.” she was restless.</p>
<p>“Riles, stay focused, it's okay, we have the time, I need you to stay focused we me, okay ?”</p>
<p>“Yeah”, she recovered. </p>
<p>“Perfect, cut the two blue wires above the timer.”</p>
<p>“Did it”, she said with a robotic voice.</p>
<p>“Okay, don't move I go downstairs to see if the big one is okay.”</p>
<p>“Mac ! No! Don't let me !”</p>
<p>“Riley, don't be afraid, you risk nothing for now, stay focused, I come back in half a minute”</p>
<p>Despite he heard her sniff, he went downstairs. The big one hadn't changed, it was perfect. It was disarmed, now Riley couldn't kill all the neighborhood anymore. He ran upstairs.</p>
<p>“Riles, I'm back !”</p>
<p>“Why you needed to go downstairs ?”</p>
<p>“Cutting the two blue wires had to disconnect definitely the big one, I had to check” </p>
<p>She said nothing. She was a little ashamed of being afraid, Mac would never abandon her.</p>
<p>“Now you have to be extremely focused. I need you to cut within the same two seconds: the red wire above the timer and the red wire just beside the timer under the green one which you cut earlier”.</p>
<p>“Why within the two same second ?” she had a bad feeling.</p>
<p>“Because the first one will speed up the time”, he takes a break, she had to know “minutes will become seconds.”</p>
<p>“What ?! Mac you said to me that we have time!”</p>
<p>“Yes, Riles I work with our emotions and it's a little complex, now-”</p>
<p>“I'm sorry that you have to deal with my emotions Mac, but this is simple for you, you are not here and you could disarm it in your sleep ! This is not the case for everyone !” </p>
<p>She was completely freaking out and mad at him, it was too much pressure.</p>
<p>“Maybe I am not inside, but you are, Riley ! and if this damn door wasn't trapped, I would have smashed it long ago to be sure you get out of this room alive ! So now, don't lose more time just take a deep breath and do it.”</p>
<p>Mac screaming at her had the effect of refocusing re-steady her. Suddenly she felt calm.</p>
<p>“First, the red one above the timer, then the red one beside the timer ?”, she asked to be sure.</p>
<p>“Yes, Riles” </p>
<p>He was anxious, more than if it had been himself in front of the bomb. He had never been so overwhelming by his feeling in front of a bomb.</p>
<p>Riley took a deep breath, she could do this, Mac believed in her. There was no more time. She stretched her hand and with a professional gesture, she cut the two red wires. The timer stopped. 00.00.02.<br/>
She released the breath she hadn't been aware she was holding.</p>
<p>“Mac ?” she calls him softly.</p>
<p>“Yes”, he whispered on the other side.</p>
<p>“I did it” </p>
<p>She could hear him blow heavily:</p>
<p>“Oh god !”</p>
<p>She did it ! For a while he had thought about losing her, sacrifice Riley to save the one thousand other people he didn't even know. This option, had scared and hurt him. But they were safe. Or almost safe:</p>
<p>“Is it over ? Can I go out ?” she asked cautiously. She wanted to exit this room, to see Mac.</p>
<p>“No, the door is still trapped, you need to cut the other red wires. You can cut it in the order you want” </p>
<p>He waited what seems an eternity before he heard her voice again just behind the door:</p>
<p>“And now, can I come ?”</p>
<p>He opened the door for her and instantly hugged her. Hugging her as tight as he could against him, he told her:</p>
<p>“I love you so much !”</p>
<p>All the pressure and anguish he had felt this past hour was gone. He could breathe normally again. They had survived.</p>
<p>“I love you too, Mac”</p>
<p>A tear escaped his eyes and she was already crying.</p>
<p>“I'm so proud of you !” </p>
<p>“I'm sorry for earlier, I should never have told you that”</p>
<p>“It's okay, the main thing is that you succeeded. We need to call Jack”, he said sniffing.</p>
<p>“Yeah, I need to hear him”, she answered, releasing her grip on Mac.</p>
<p>He smiled at her and they go downstairs: </p>
<p>“Yeah, you have to talk to him, because he swore to kick my ass.” he laughs sending a text to tell Jack he could come without blowing up the neighborhood.</p>
<p>She laughs and he realized he missed that. He put a hand on her cheek, caressing it gently, wiping away the few tears which had resisted.</p>
<p>“I want you to stay.”</p>
<p>She looks up at him interrogatively.</p>
<p>“I found your computer and I saw your hunt for a new apartment. I don't want you to move into another place. I know sometimes, like this night, it's a little creepy, but I don't think you will be more safe elsewhere”</p>
<p>“I didn't want to move because I was afraid for my safety. I wanted to let you some privacy with Desi and- ”</p>
<p>“And she's not here anymore, so you can stay”, he said hastily as if he might lose her in the second. </p>
<p>She answered nothing, but he understood by the way she looked at him, that she just figure it out, that he loved her.<br/>
At first, he opened his mouth to deny it but, before he could say anything, she came to snuggle in his arms whispering:</p>
<p>“I stay with you”</p>
<p>“For a few days ?” he asked unsure.</p>
<p>“Forever”, she answered. It sounded like a promise. </p>
<p>He held her tighter kissing the top of her head.</p>
<p>The next second, Jack entered into the house like a tornado and Riley rushed into his arms. He looked at them smiling.</p>
<p>Yeah, he could live with that.</p>
<p>END</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thanks for reading :)</p>
<p>I hope you liked it ! </p>
<p>Give me your impressions.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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